A Neo-Realist Approach to the Challenges Facing the United Nations in Conflict Resolution: Rwanda as a Case Study

The United Nations has been faced with a lot of challenges pertaining to different conflicts since its establishment in 1945. In particular, these challenges concern the plethora of intrastate conflicts that emerged after the Cold War ended in the late 1980s, which exposed many countries to conflicts that found their basis in a variety of issues, such as power sharing, ethnicity, and resource control and distribution. Today, most especially in Africa, the United Nations (UN) is facing challenges with many problems, such as conflicts around the world, human rights issues, environmental problems, and terrorism. While the United Nations as an international organization for the maintenance of peace and security around the world has made some positive impact in dealing with these conflicts, like in the cases of Liberia and Cambodia, its failure in Rwanda remains a stain on its peacekeeping record. The Rwandan case was chosen for present purposes to examine certain critical issues related to the conflict in Rwanda as they relate to the role played by the UN. Another major concern of this thesis is to argue that the UN cannot function without the full support of its member states. The Rwandan case was also purposefully chosen in order to reveal some of the main reasons that led to the failure of the United Nations in conflict resolution and how the factors behind the failure of the mission have affected other peacekeeping missions. The objective of this thesis is to explain the Rwanda conflict and the role the UN played in the conflict as well the challenges the United Nation Peacekeeping Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) faced during intervention. The thesis will employ the Neo-realist theory in order to critically explain the factors behind the failures of the UN‟s peacekeeping operation in Rwanda.